1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic assembly which includes a heat pipe that transfers heat generated by an integrated circuit to a manifold of a cooling system.
2. Background Information
Integrated circuits are typically assembled into packages that are soldered to a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board may be the substrate of an electronic card that is plugged into a mating connector of a motherboard.
During operation the integrated circuit generates heat. The heat must be removed to insure that the junction temperatures of the circuit do not exceed an undesirable value. Some electronic cards incorporate heat slugs and heat sinks to facilitate the removal of heat from the circuit. The heat may flow into the ambient air from the heat slug/sink by forced or natural convection.
There have been developed electronic assemblies which integrate heat pipes to facilitate the removal of heat from the integrated circuit. Heat pipes typically include an outer tube that contains a wick and a fluid. The fluid absorbs heat and vaporizes at an evaporator end of the heat pipe. The evaporator end is thermally coupled to the integrated circuit. The gaseous fluid flows to a condenser end of the heat pipe where the heat is transferred from the pipe. The fluid changes back to the liquid phase in the condenser end and flows through the wick back to the evaporator end of the heat pipe to complete the cycle.
The condenser end of the heat pipe may be coupled to a "cold plate" such as a manifold of a cooling system. The condensor end is typically clamped or otherwise fastened to the cold plate to minimize the thermal impedance of the heat pipe/cold plate interface.
It is desirable to provide an electronic card that can be readily plugged into, and removed from, the motherboard of a system. For a card which has a clamped heat pipe, such a process would require the installation and/or removal of hardware that fastens the pipe to the cold plate. The existence of the clamping hardware requires tools and generally increases the time required to install and/or replace the card. It would be desirable to provide a system which allows a heat pipe of an electronic card to be coupled to a cold plate without any fasteners.